Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.(Photo: Matt Stone, Courier Journal)Buy Photo

If you go to Edward Lee's newest venture, Whiskey Dry — the burger and whiskey bar now open on Fourth Street Live — you'll find his favorite burger on the menu. What you won't find is the name he originally wanted — the Ed Mac.

The name, riffed from the powerhouse Big Mac of McDonald's, was shot down pretty much the moment word hit the foodie wires that he was naming his burger after the American institution, Lee said.

The letter he received almost immediately from McDonald's lawyers expressed concern that “Ed Mac” was too similar to their iconic Big Mac and requested that he agree to not use it, Lee said.

“Basically it was a cease and desist," he said.

So what did he think when he saw the letter?

“I'm on McDonald's radar, that's pretty cool,” he said with a laugh. “My lawyer was like, 'listen, pick your battles,'” and Lee — who didn't mind earlier this year speaking up about the evils of Coca Cola — followed his counsel.

The burger is now named the Big Ed. Big, it seems, is a general enough word that McDonald's didn't quibble.

But why the homage to a Big Mac to begin with, especially from a chef better known for impeccable ingredients and fine dining than for anything resembling food that comes in a wrapper?

Well, it's not the first time he's tipped his chef's hat at a classic. S'mores and Almond Joy have both been re-imagined on his menus.

As for the burger known the world around, “it was such an iconic thing,” Lee said. “Obviously not everyone but most people of my generation, if you're anywhere near your 40s or 50s … fast food wasn't evil back then. We were dying to go (to McDonald's). There's a nostalgia for it.”

And, simply put, Lee just loves the Big Mac.

What's the appeal?

For one, there's no ketchup. Then “the idea of having two thin patties vs. one, it was revolutionary for the time. For whatever it's worth, it's a great burger," he said.

So when he sat down to brainstorm six or seven “really composed burgers,” for Whiskey Dry, he said, “I'm definitely doing something that feels or tastes like a Big Mac.”

While Lee will defend his love for fast food, “I don't care whether it's KFC or McDonald's or pizza,” he said. "We're seeing a chef movement where you can embrace these things but do them with better ingredients. The concept is not flawed. We take the concept and just do it better.”

Starting with swapping out the Big Mac's middle bun.

“It's too bready with the bun in middle,” he said. “It's hard because there's something nostalgic about the purely processed squishy bread McDonald's uses but we didn't want to go that far.”

Enter: a fried green tomato.

Then, of course, there's the special sauce, which is essentially Thousand Island dressing, he said.

Whiskey Dry's is another variation of the mayo-based sauce — “think of a tartar sauce almost, with some ketchup” — called Comeback Sauce. This cousin of remoulade, an icon in the south, is known to pair up perfectly with fried green tomatoes.

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Restauranteer and chef, Edward Lee, inside at his new Whiskey Dry whiskey bar slated to open Feb. 10th on Fourth Street Live! The restaurant will be Lee's third in Louisville. Feb. 2, 2017
Alton Strupp/Louisville Courier

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

Whiskey Dry by Ed Lee will have burgers and whiskey, of course, but with around 200 selections from around the world. There's also the "Ed Mac," Lee's "playful" interpretation of a McDonald's Big Mac with a fried green tomato displacing the center bun of the fast food classic. An iceburg lettuce slaw and thick Russian-style dressing echo the McDonald's predecessor.
Matt Stone, Courier Journal

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As for the main event, the Big Ed is built on two 3-ounce patties of a nice quality Angus beef, Lee said, cooked to order and flattened on the grill for a nice caramelization. Pickles, cheddar cheese, chopped onion and lettuce finish it up.

It's a towering creation that may be easier consumed with a fork and a knife, but nope, Lee said, diners are meant to just squish it down and eat it.

(Be forewarned: lean over your plate or tuck a napkin in your shirt bib style or you may wear some of the Big Ed home.)

Ringing in at $13.75 at dinner or $12.25 at lunch and served with fries, “it's not cheap,” Lee acknowledged (although it's half the price of the dry aged beef burger — 8 ounces of ground steak), but “we're hoping people are willing to pay a little more for quality.”

It's the same philosophy of food you'd get at any of his restaurants, he said. They're just “putting it over the category of burgers.”

It was certainly a tasty, if somewhat overwhelming, burger for someone who hasn't been to McDonald's in years — yup, not since I read "Fast Food Nation."

Lee ate “quite a few” Big Macs throughout his menu building process — all in the name or research, of course — but his rendition, he said, is going to be more in tune with the Big Macs from back in the day, the one he's nostalgic for.

That burger is a thing of the past.

“Like many things I had as a kid, they don't add up anymore,” he said.

File Big Macs with Cracker Jack's. “I know for a fact there's less peanut and caramel than when I was a kid.”

We might wonder why things don't taste as good to us now as when we were kids. Were they really that good or have our palates just matured?

When it comes to these sort of childhood favorites, while we probably have just outgrown them to some extent, “they have changed recipes,” Lee said. “The world has gone much more processed. They didn't have hydrogenated oils when I was kid. Like everything else, it became industrial.”

“I wish I could go back in time and taste the original Big Mac,” he mused.